Reviews 2009
Reviews 2009
✭✭✩✩✩
music and lyrics by Paul Williams, book by Garry Marshall, directed by Gordon Greenberg
Dancap Productions, Elgin Theatre, Toronto
February 4-15, 2009
There’s nothing in Happy Days, A New Musical that a little work couldn’t fix--like a new book, better songs, better choreography and better direction. These it would give the energetic, highly talented cast something interesting to do and would make the show more than an expensive waste of two hours.
Those who thought Happy Days (2006) might be a musical version of the play by Samuel Beckett will be sorely disappointed. Instead, it is based on the Paramount television sitcom that ran from 1974-84 set in 1950s Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For someone who has never seen the TV show, Happy Days comes off as a feeble attempt to create a faux-‘50s musical like Grease, but without that show’s tension or catchy tunes. Garry Marshall, producer of the original series, gets no points for his book that resurrects the antique “let’s put on a show” plot from the movie Babes in Arms (1939). A big developer wants to tear down Arnold’s, the beloved maltshop hangout of Richie Cunningham (Steven Booth) and Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli (Joey Sorge). So to raise money to save Arnold’s, Richie and the gang put on a dance contest and a televised wrestling match between the Fonz and his arch-enemies, the Malachi Brothers (Matt Merchant and Matt Walker). Roving motorcyclist and former Fonz squeeze, Pinky (Felicia Finley), will judge the dancing. Every possible predictable complication and resolution ensues.
Though composer Paul Williams has written lots of famous songs (e.g., “We’ve Only Just Begun”), Happy Days finds him totally uninspired. Likewise, you can see more exciting dance moves at any Toronto salsa club than anything choreographer Michele Lynch creates. The young cast does manage to capture the ‘50s aura except for Finley, who seems to have beamed in from 2009. Sorge, not only has a fine singing voice but truly inhabits his character and commands the stage at his every entrance. Booth is also excellent as the nerdy friend of the coolest guy in town. Cynthia Ferrer creates a warm portrait of Richie’s mother, though her proto-women’s liberation longings seem misjudged. So, too, is the dreadful sequence when James Dean (Walker) and Elvis (Merchant) suddenly materialize to inspire the Fonz. Yet, it is very early on in the show, with the ludicrous first appearance of the flamenco-clad Malachi Brothers, that this musical Happy Days jumps the shark.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2009-02-06.
Photo: Joey Sorge as “The Fonz” (left). ©Gerry Goodstein.
2009-02-06
Happy Days, A New Musical